A Kiss That Never Was: Poems of Heartbreak & Almost-Love (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781639808281)

In A Kiss That Never Was, Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo achieves something uncommon in modern poetry out of the West: he converts private longing into historical inquiry with civilizational implications. He does so without losing emotional intimacy with his readers or authenticity with his muse. What begins as a meditation on a love revered but unfulfilled, embodied in the haunting figure of Zp, develops into a profound reckoning with fractured memory, stolen nationhood, and the inherited pain of diaspora.

In Okonkwo's mind, the titular "kiss" exists as more than a romantic mirage. It strolls across the pages and underneath sentences as a metaphor for muddled histories, like that of the Biafran War, and interrupted destinies. Okonkwo's invocation of Agwu, the Igbo spirit of creativity and madness, provides the collection with a philosophical foundation to stand and shout.

Its achievement is in reframing suffering as both an uninvited burden and an undeserved calling. The result is a piece of work steeped in restrained lyricism and moral sturdiness. It is at once a dirge, a revelation, and a rebirth that insists heartbreak goes beyond the private to the public, and that the most intimate wounds often traverse across generations.

For fourteen years, he has hosted the satirical show Dr. Damages Show on IrokopostTV online, which has been featured in The New York Times, BBC, and The Guardian (London). He is also the host of 90MinutesAfrica and HaveYourSay247, as well as a panelist on The Diaspora Perspective on Voice of the People TV in Nigeria. Additionally, he writes a weekly column for People's Gazette.

His most recent self-published books include This American Life Sef, The Secret Letters of President Donald J. Trump, Age 73, and When Trump Met Kamala. He is also the author of a book of essays, Children of a Retired God.

A chapter of his memoir, Because I Am My Grandfather, was a finalist in the 2010 John Guyon Literary Nonfiction Prize Competition. His short story, "The Butcher, the Surgeon & Me," was a finalist in Glimmer Train's 2009 Open Fiction Competition. He has been interviewed on NPR and the BBC Africa Service, and his work appears in Quartz, This Is Africa, and La Repubblica.

Okonkwo holds a Bachelor's degree in Engineering from the Federal University of Technology, Akure, in Ondo State, Nigeria, and an MFA in Professional and Creative Writing from Western Connecticut State University, USA.